HYDROGEN NEED TO KNOW

One of Yahoo!’s features last week:

Hydrogen Myths
- 1. Hydrogen fuel is abundant and free.

- There is hydrogen in fossil fuels, alcohols-even in water…Hydrogen is everywhere-it just needs to be captured and used…Capturing hydrogen, however, is not as easy as it sounds…hydrogen must be separated from whatever it's attached to, a process that requires energy…making a kilogram of hydrogen from water through electrolysis requires 45-70 kWh of electricity…
- 2. Hydrogen fuel produces no emissions-just drop of clean water.

- Depending on where that electricity comes from, hydrogen can be clean and efficient or anything but…Burning coal to generate electricity-and then using that electricity to make hydrogen-is not such a good idea…However, if the electricity used to make hydrogen comes from renewable sources, such as hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, or wind, then hydrogen can be extremely clean…This is what appeals to hydrogen's supporters: the prospect of a fuel that is abundant, non-polluting, and safe for the world's climate.
- 3. The hydrogen highway is under construction and will be opened soon.

- According to the Department of Energy, there are just 15 hydrogen stations in the United States, and 10 are in California. Hydrogen is hard to store onboard a vehicle, and it's also hard to store in tanker trucks, rail cars, and other equipment traditionally used to distribute liquid fuels. So we'll probably need to rethink our fuel distribution infrastructure in order to supply hydrogen effectively…hydrogen infrastructure will take significant amounts of time and financial investment to develop…Hydrogen has great promise…we should be careful not to focus exclusively on hydrogen at the expense of other solutions that can be implemented today.